Rockets’ 4th quarter defense stifles Suns

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PHOENIX – Pat Beverley wanted the shot. Before Dwight Howard set the screen and James Harden took off down the lane and the ball found Beverley in the corner, Beverley had told Harden he would be there waiting.

Beverley had, after all, played in the Euroleague championship game. Game on the line, he wanted the shot.

Donatas Motiejunas wanted the ball. He had heard Suns coach Jeff Hornacek instruct Markieff Morris to foul him and thought to himself, “That’s a stupid idea.”

Motiejunas had, after all, played in the Polish League championship series. He wanted the ball.

The Rockets had taken everything Goran Dragic and the Suns could throw at them, going from up 18 in the first half to down 11 in the fourth quarter. But with the game on the line, a pair of second-year role players, normally overshadowed, won it. Beverley hit the shot, a 3-pointer that put the Rockets in front in the final minute. Motiejunas sank the free throws. And when Dragic missed his 3-pointer at the buzzer, the Rockets not only stunned the Suns, 115-112, they took the sort of win they believed helps a young team grow up.

“I had confidence in them to go out and make shots and make big plays and they did that tonight,” Harden said. “The more guys have confidence in end of game situations like that, the more guys will step up and get it done.”

The Rockets only got the chance to win it late when they turned things around in the fourth quarter, cutting down on the turnovers that sent the NBA’s best fast break flying and finally getting Dragic and Gerald Green under control.

Dragic had lit up the Rockets in the Suns’ second-quarter comeback from an 18-point deficit, scoring 19 points. Green had torn them up in the third, scoring 18 points to stake the Suns – who were 32-3 with a lead after three quarters including 20-1 at home – to a 10-point lead.

Through three quarters, the Suns had scored 25 points off Rockets turnovers. They had four in the fourth quarter. Green and Dragic were 20 of 28 heading into the fourth quarter. They were a combined 2 of 10 in the fourth.

That opened the way for the Rockets’ run back into the game, but they could not win it until the final minute when Beverley completed his phenomenal fourth quarter and Motiejunas made the two biggest free throws of his two-year NBA career.

“That gives us extra confidence,” Motiejunas said. “We see coach believes in us and trusts us so I think it’s really important. It shows he trusts us in the last minutes. That’s really good.”

With the game tied, P.J. Tucker put in the rebound of a Green airball, but moments later Harden beat him to board a Beverley miss and scored, tying the game with one minute remaining.

Morris got a step on Howard, finishing his layup for a 110-108 Phoenix lead with 46.3 seconds left, but when the Rockets came out of a time out, Beverley returned to the floor ready.

“I told James before we ran it, “I’m in the corner,’ ” Beverley said. “I saw how they were helping, leaving the corner man, and forcing the shots outside. I saw it before we even ran the play.

“I’ve played in probably the second biggest game in basketball, the Euroleague Championship, fans going crazy, so I’m used to a hostile environment.”

Channing Frye cut off Harden’s drive, but Dragic cheated toward the lane, leaving Beverley to nail his only 3 of the game with 34.3 seconds left.

“They came off the pick-and-roll,” Harden said. “Goran was just falling asleep. I just made a basketball play.”

Green missed a jumper and Beverley outfought the Suns for the rebound, adding two more free throws, giving the Rockets a three-point lead and Beverley a career-high 20. With the Rockets defending the 3-point line, Dragic took a layup. With the Rockets still up one, the game and game was soon in Motiejunas’ hands with 14.1 seconds remaining.

“Everyone else said they were scared,” Motiejunas, a 58.8 percent shooter from the line, said of his final free throws. “I was not scared. It’s just free throws. You cannot be scared of shooting the last free throws. If you’re going to be scared, you’re never going to make it.”

He said he never had a doubt. Neither did Beverley. They have, after all, done it before, just not often on this continent.